CIA faces the axe in proposed overhaul

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The chairman of a committee investigating the September 11 terrorist attacks has unveiled proposals for an overhaul of the CIA that would in effect dismantle it.

The move is the latest blow to US intelligence agencies, which are still reeling from the proposal from the September 11 commission to appoint a person to oversee many intelligence institutions.

The Republican Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate committee investigating the attacks, said he favoured devolving the CIA's three functions to smaller, independent agencies.

"We are not abolishing the CIA," Senator Roberts said in a paper made public before the final report. "We are reordering and renaming its three major elements. No one agency, no matter how distinguished its history, is more important than US national security."

He told CBS television: "We didn't pay attention to turf or agencies or boxes ... but rather to what are the national security threats that face this country today. I'm trying to build a consensus around something that's very different and very bold."

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The plan would eliminate the Pentagon's control of the National Security Agency and create a national intelligence director, essentially controlling the $40 billion ($A55 billion) intelligence budget.

The CIA is certain to fiercely oppose the plan, under which even its name would be eliminated. The Pentagon would also oppose it, because it would lose the National Security Agency and other defence intelligence agencies that it says are essential to the military. And several influential members of Congress who have warned against any big overhaul of the nation's intelligence set-up are also likely to oppose it.

A White House spokesman, Brian Besanceney, said he could not comment on the details of the proposal, and a CIA spokesman said the agency would not comment until it saw details.

But a senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "The proposal is unworkable and would hamper rather than enhance the nation's intelligence efforts at a critical time. It doesn't make any sense. Rather than bringing intelligence disciplines together it smashes them apart."

Among Democrats, Rand Beers, a national security adviser to the presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry, welcomed the plan, saying it was similar to proposals Senator Kerry had made. Senator Kerry has embraced all the commission's recommendations.

But Senator Carl Levin, a member of the intelligence committee and a Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, objected. He said it was a mistake for Senator Roberts to move without Democrat support.

Meanwhile, the final report by the commission found that all of the September 11 hijackers broke US immigration laws and some of those violations could have led to their detection and arrest.

The detectable violations included fraudulent passports presented by as many as seven of the 19 hijackers, the report said. Also, US intelligence had linked at least three of the hijackers to terrorist groups, but officials never placed their names on watch lists used by border inspectors.